A Chara, - The points Frank McDonald makes about tourism concern the birthright of those who come after us and the state in which they will inherit it. All the evidence suggests that the beauty and uniqueness of this legacy are to be squandered for short-term gains. Where I live, Inis Mor, these issues are played out at an accelerated rate.
The lunge towards what is called "development" means the destruction of what is traditional and special. In this frenzy, the supposed guardians, Galway County Council, facilitate and collude in this vandalism. Their latest initiative is to widen all the island roads and to tarmacadam all the laneways and boreens. Taken together with the earlier erection of motorway-type orange lights, the thrust of development is to facilitate more and faster traffic. Every day, the fine words of the Galway County Development Plan are blatantly ignored by the planning authority.
The question is one of values: the values of the gombeen man or those of the ancestors. - Is mise,
Benny McCabe,
Cill Einne,
Inis Mor,
Aran,
Co Galway.
